Category: Resume & Cover Letters

Only a small fraction of the people who apply for a job are called in for job interviews. Even in a tight labour market, competition for many roles can be fierce. At most larger organizations, your resume has to get past the ATS, software filters, to even be read by a human recruiter. Here are…

You don’t need to be an IT professional or a computer science grad to be proficient in some of the most sought-after tech skills in Canada right now. Digital skills are needed in the workplace across industries. If you grew up in the era of social media, you probably have a number of valuable abilities…

It’s a question for the ages: what font should you use on your resume? How many people have sat at the computer for hours agonizing over this question, scrolling through the list of available options and thinking… “What if I choose the wrong font? Is the hiring manager going to look at my resume and…

Many people struggle with their cover letters. It’s a formal written communication between you and a stranger, essentially asking them for something: a job – or at least the opportunity to meet and discuss being hired for a job. That can be awkward. What do you say? How much do you write? Six sentences. That’s…

Most companies conduct background checks on potential hires. They go to the extra time and effort because they know that many candidates include exaggerated or false information on their resumes. A working relationship is built on mutual trust. Employers don’t want to enter into an association that starts out with dishonesty. Here’s what the experts…

You’ve probably heard conflicting opinions over how long your resume should be. Many experts insist that you should get all of your information on a single page. The thinking is that employers don’t have the time or patience to read through pages of unnecessary information. That much, at least, is true. Nobody wants to go…

The vast majority, 90 per cent, of Canadian managers say that a candidate’s fit with the organizational culture is equal to or more important than their skills and experience. Your personality really matters when landing a job. Those are the findings of a new survey by Robert Half. They spoke with over 1,200 managers from…

An updated study has determined precisely how long employers spend evaluating your resume – and what you can do to keep them reading longer. The executive recruitment website, The Ladders made headlines back in 2012 with their revealing eye-tracking study of how employers read candidate resumes. Their software tracked where recruiters looked first and how…

Consciously or subconsciously, we are always looking for patterns, for stories we can relate to. This is even true while we read resumes. When considering your application, employers will be looking for the story of your career. Demonstrating a clear plot can be the key to a winning resume. When I am evaluating resumes, I…

Reading through job ads can be discouraging. All too often candidates see a high-level job title and a lengthy list of degrees, certifications, and years of experience in the requirements section and get scared off from applying. The thing is that job titles vary widely from company to company. In some companies a ‘manager’ might…